I've rented a bunch of different cars for work travel. I currently own a 2005 four cylinder Accord for reference.

I've rented a Malibu (meh), Altima (absolutely hated the seats, other than that ok), Impala(how do they still sell these) and a couple of Fusions. I really like the Fusion and prefer it even over my Accord. If I had to replace my car today there wouldn't even be a question. Well, the question would be v6 Vs. Hybrid.

I don't like the looks of the new ones, but I haven't seen one in person yet.

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Yea...I just test drove the new 2013 Altima...like the car a lot...HATED the seats....just like the GM "catcher's Mit" seats...felt like I was sitting in a bucket.
Then I test drove the 2013 Accord...GREAT seats...the rest of the car...not so much...real noisy CVT.
Will look at the new Fusion and new Mazda 6 when it comes out in Jan.
Gotta replace the wife's 03 Subaru Lagacy wagon...too bad they don't make that anymore..and the new Subarus have CVT's...not a fan..but the Nissan one pretty good..too bad about the saets tho...a deal breaker for sure.

Like the new Fusion, but I'd have a hard time ignoring the new Accord with a 6spd. I test drove an '04 Accord recently from a used car lot--5spd and 280000km on it. Not a squeak or rattle to be had. Felt like it would go double the mileage without much drama.

Had the wife's '12 Maxima in for service (I'm the OP and we just couldn't wait for the Fusion or the Accord to come out, the G35 Coupe was not gonna cut it and my son was born the first week of August, plus with rebates the Maximas are a good deal), and the dealer that sells Nissan has Honda along with it. They had a 2013 Honda Accord EX-L, 4 Cyl. Nice looking car, but to be quite honest it didn't strike me as being "The New Accord". However, I believe that's why Hondas are so timeless. They just nudge their design forward and that's probably why a ten year old Accord is still desirable.

Looking at both within minutes, the Altima is using some of the Maxima's and 370s' design but it just doesn't seem to be the car that the new Accord is going to be. The Altima's wheels do not fill the wheel wells like cars of today have to do in order to be sucessful. The new Accord just seems to be a little more classy.

Most Honda dealers that I have driven by still have the 2012s out front and only a couple of the '13s stuck in the back row out of view. The bombardment will not come for awhile I suppose.

I have not seen any Fusions driving around my small town either yet....

Nice job! You'll love the "deep impact blue". We just got our first 20 or so 2013's in last week, and the impact blue was the best color I saw. My company has a fleet of about 500 "few-zens" as I call them. So far, everyone loves the new model.

I'm stuck in a 2011 until the Spring order cycle, but so far 60k completely trouble free miles on mine.

Had the wife's '12 Maxima in for service (I'm the OP and we just couldn't wait for the Fusion or the Accord to come out, the G35 Coupe was not gonna cut it and my son was born the first week of August, plus with rebates the Maximas are a good deal), and the dealer that sells Nissan has Honda along with it. They had a 2013 Honda Accord EX-L, 4 Cyl. Nice looking car, but to be quite honest it didn't strike me as being "The New Accord". However, I believe that's why Hondas are so timeless. They just nudge their design forward and that's probably why a ten year old Accord is still desirable.

Looking at both within minutes, the Altima is using some of the Maxima's and 370s' design but it just doesn't seem to be the car that the new Accord is going to be. The Altima's wheels do not fill the wheel wells like cars of today have to do in order to be sucessful. The new Accord just seems to be a little more classy.

Most Honda dealers that I have driven by still have the 2012s out front and only a couple of the '13s stuck in the back row out of view. The bombardment will not come for awhile I suppose.

I have not seen any Fusions driving around my small town either yet....

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Check out the interior, Honda has done a great job updating it. The generation which included the 2012 just had this ugly huge thing of cheap-ish buttons and that's been replaced thankfully. Though you can't get the nice touch screen with a 4cyl standard :huh but they still offer more features than most.

I should have went on to state that the new Accord seemed like a really nice well thought out car. I would buy one in a second. It won't be long that they will be everywhere. What is going to make it or break it will be the CVT trans. On second thought, probably 70% of buyers of Accords will not even notice their car not shifting. I have read initial reports that say that other makers should take note on how well the Honda Accord CVT performs. I will say again that the CVT in the 290 horse Maxima does great. I don't feel the rubber band effect.

Well I guess that old adage of "never buy an american car in the first year of production" still holds true. My company has a couple thousand Ford's in our fleet, and the new 2013 Fusions had just started being delployed. I was overly impressed with the car until now....

Last week, all were recalled for a headlight malfunction that causes the lights to go dim after they heat up. Fix is to replace both entire headlight assemblies.. Ford does not have sufficient parts for recall, status unknown.

Then Sunday, I get an urgent email from our Fleet admin. that all new 2013 Fusions are grounded. Seems there's an issue with the 1.6L engine models that first gives an overheat warning, reduces power to limp mode, then the car catches fire. We've got about 200 in play already, and all are being returned to the dealer. As of now, they don't have a fix, but Ford is paying for loaner cars on each return.....

Makes me kind of glad that my 2013 replacement Fusion won't be ordered until Spring. I hope FoMoCo can fix this mess.....

Thanks! I'm looking forward to getting the car in spite of the latest recall. My car was built on 11/30/12. It appears my car may have just missed the recall as VINs I've checked built up to two days before mine show the recall, and VINs I've checked 11/30 and later do not. Even if my car is affected it isn't the end of the world and I still want it. I kind of expected a recall or two with a first year model, just not a recall for the car burning to a crisp! If there aren't any delays, my car should get to me in about two weeks. I already have some new wheels waiting for it:

Good looking set of wheels! For us it came down to Ford Fusion or 2010+ Nissan Maxima. Both cars are similar in appearance, and price, but Fusion was not available at the time so we went with Nissan. I'd like to go test drive one.

Good looking set of wheels! For us it came down to Ford Fusion or 2010+ Nissan Maxima. Both cars are similar in appearance, and price, but Fusion was not available at the time so we went with Nissan. I'd like to go test drive one.

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Wow! That's odd, we were waiting for the Fusion too per my starting this thread but the baby would not wait on Ford any longer so I found out they were heavily discounting Maximas in July...so that's the direction we went. The base model Maxima offers a lot for the price even though I opted for the Sport version as i felt bad for my wife trading in her prized G35 Coupe...